Archive for 2022
April 11, 2022
THE BOARD WANTED HIM TO SHUT UP: Elon Musk Is NOT Joining the Twitter Board After All, and That’s Good News.
RICH PEOPLE FLEEING NEW YORK, HURTING ITS BOND RATING.
New York elected officials are scrambling to spin their disastrous population losses as something that can easily be reversed with just a few tweaks to the business environment, more federal aid and more spending from Albany and City Hall.
Sorry, the municipal-bond market appears to disagree. . . .
A little background on munis: They don’t often follow the same set of rules as other types of debt, which rise and fall based on broad economic trends and interest rates.
That’s because municipal bonds are a tax haven. Even when rates rise and other bonds fall, rich people in high-taxed places (i.e. New York) can often be counted on to keep buying city and state debt.
That appeal is now eroding, traders and investment bankers who specialize in New York State and City bonds tell me. The most logical explanation isn’t simply too much supply or higher interest rates. The appetite from millionaires should still be there: City and state taxes continue to hit the wealthy harder than ever.
Plus there’s no immediate worry of budget shortfalls and bond-rating downgrades that depress prices because both city and state coffers are flush with federal COVID-relief money.
The only explanation, market professionals tell me, is a growing number of rich people who no longer need to seek New York munis as a tax haven — because they now live in Florida.
The Bear Traps Report, a research platform, crunched some numbers for me and came up with the following: Yields on Florida munis have often been higher than those from New York because there was more demand for the Empire State debt and less demand for tax-free bonds in a low-tax state like Florida.
That began to shift over the years, but most significantly in early February of this year. Now New York bond yields are higher than Florida’s just as the Empire State’s rich-resident tax base has significantly thinned.
It’s not like they weren’t warned.
NO MANDATES: Nearly 300 Service Members Separated From Navy, Marine Corps For Vaccine Refusal. “The Navy has so far separated a total of 763 sailors due to their continued refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19.”
JEFFREY CARTER: Regulating Cryptocurrency: If The Government Does It, Look Out. “Gary Gensler is the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is not your friend. Gary was one of the worst heads of the CFTC ever in the short history of the CFTC. . . . Unfortunately, many in the crypto community welcome regulation. They think it will give the innovation legitimacy. It won’t. What will happen is government regulators will crush innovators, and the big companies that already exist will win.”
KURT SCHLICHTER: Call Groomers ‘Groomers’ Because of Their Grooming and Because It Annoys David French.
It’s a blessing of liberty!
WOMEN RESPOND TO TRANS PRESSURE WITH #RESPECTMYSEX HASHTAG.
WE HAVE THE RECEIPTS: Will Twitter Ban Hillary Clinton for Her Election Disinformation?
POLITICS IS DOWNSTREAM FROM CULTURE: On Conservative Inc.’s Culture War Disdain. “They seem more afraid of alienating liberal MSM and Hollywood friends over culture war issues than paying attention to outrage among actual voters.”
MICHAEL WALSH: The Shadow President.
So I wish Trump were president now. I will certainly vote for him if he’s the nominee. But I’m not sure I don’t prefer Ron DeSantis. He seems to have the media chops, he’s a fighter, and he’s eligible for two terms. Trump isn’t, and would probably be too old for another anyway. DeSantis understands bureaucratic warfare, too. Trump/DeSantis followed by 8 years of DeSantis would be best, but that seems pretty hopeful. What do y’all think?
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: HuffPo: Sure looks like Black Lives Matter was a racket, eh? Update: BLM responds.
A JUDICIAL WATCH VICTORY: California Court Opinion Explains Historic Ruling against Race, Ethnic, LGBT Quotas.
DAVE BARRY, TO NEW YORKERS MOVING TO MIAMI:
I do not mean to suggest here that all New Yorkers are thoughtless jerkwads. Au contraire, as the French say when they are not talking about my parking feat. Plenty of New Yorkers are nice. Loud, but nice. I myself was once a New Yorker. I was even, briefly, a Jets fan, although I have petitioned the courts to have that expunged from my record. Nor am I suggesting that New Yorkers, as a group, are worse drivers than Floridians. Far from it. I have argued for decades — feel free to Google me on this — that Florida drivers, and especially Miami drivers, are the worst drivers in the United States, if not the world. I am confident that if we ever encounter alien life, even if it is a one-celled fungus, it will be better at driving than Miamians are. No, my point is not about driving. My point — and the reason we went “Huh” when we saw the license plate — is that lately there is a growing resentment among Miamians toward New Yorkers.
I wonder how New Yorkers would respond if they were flooded with Red State migrants?
JOEL KOTKIN: America Is Headed for Class Warfare.
Nothing has revealed the class divide in the U.S. quite like runaway inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. But in addition to the economic impact the staggering incompetence of the Biden administration is having on the working class, there is a political one; it’s undeniably driving working class voters even further from the Democrats and toward the GOP.
But it’s not all good news for conservatives. The recent Amazon vote to unionize could be a precursor to something less appealing to the Right: a nascent rebellion among the vast armies of service workers who for decades have inhabited the lower economic rungs.
The truth is, the rising tide of class conflict is problematic for both parties. The Amazon vote challenges the GOP’s anti-union stance and its free market dogma. But Democrats, too, face an embarrassing conundrum, since the companies most likely to face continued union drives—Amazon and Starbucks among them—are themselves core funders and media stewards of the Democratic Party.
As the GOP turns in a populist direction, away from the Wall Street orientation it used to have before Wall Street turned in a Democratic Party direction, the union issue will be less a problem than an opportunity for Republicans. The press, meanwhile, will assure us that Democrats have always opposed unions because they are inefficient and corrupt.
COLORADO SPRINGS: D11 dissolves Department of Equity and Inclusion.
Colorado Springs School District 11 has effectively dissolved its groundbreaking Department of Equity and Inclusion and, with it, the director of equity and inclusion position.
By a “thumbs-up” at the April 6 board meeting, D11’s board voted 4-2 not to fund the equity department in the 2022-23 preliminary school year budget. The board’s conservative majority led the decision; directors Julie Ott and Darleen Daniels opposed the move.
This decision shutters the department that implemented D11’s equity policy and practices, which were put in place in 2020 under previous Superintendent Dr. Michael Thomas, to “meet the unique needs of all students.”
The article mentions “racist and offensive comments by conservative board members Al Loma and Jason Jorgenson,” without ever indicating what those comments might have been. That’s poor reporting — at the very best; a hit job is more likely — by Colorado Springs Business Journal’s Greta Anderson.
Anyway: Much more like this, please.
BECAUSE OF COURSE: Former Reddit Chief Uses ‘Free-Speechers’ as a Pejorative Term.
STILL POPULAR: Made in USA Can Opener (Black). #CommissionEarned
FASTER, PLEASE: Cancer drug stops tumor growth — puts cancer cells to sleep. “A new therapeutic approach prevents the growth of metastatic tumors in mice by forcing cancer cells into a dormant state in which they are unable to proliferate. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), could lead to new treatments that prevent the recurrence or spread of various cancer types, including breast cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).”
MUSLIMS CAN BE MUSLIM, BUT CATHOLICS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE CATHOLIC: Students cry because Catholic chaplain opposes pride flag, follows ‘theological beliefs.’